elfstone

One month!

I've been vaping for... let me check my sig... Oh My God, one MONTH! And I haven't even celebrated! Evidently, the best thing about it is that I have also been off burned tobacco for the same amount of time. I smoked my last cigarette on the balcony and saw the mailman pulling in. Then I went down and picked my package. That was my last cigarette indeed.

My last pack, two thirds full, is in the exact same place I left it then, on a table, next to some new Listerine puff thing package. I used to use a lot of those so I didn't smell at work. The package is also unopened. That is the other best thing about it - there is no need to try and hide any smell. Because there is none. I still brush my teeth several times a day, but I guess that's healthy enough and, just like vaping, it is just another addiction I can live with. (And just like vaping, it contains PG )

I never had shortness of breath when I was smoking. I had occasional morning cough. That got worse, briefly, just like every other times I quit analogs before. It's normal. It means your bronchial epithelium comes back to life. But now I can not breathe much better. I love swimming, and I was beginning to notice it being more difficult to hold my breath underwater and even when only breathing every three strokes. Now I can, again, just like in childhood, swim a full length underwater

I quit smoking because my overall health was going down, and that included high blood pressure. My pressures are okay now, but that's confounding because I also started a low dose of medication for that. But my heart rate certainly improved (it was too high at rest, which in itself is a very strong indication of future risk of problems). This is also confounded by the fact that I exercise now, but I can exercise better because I don't smoke. So, there.

In the first few weeks I vaped like I smoked. I was very dependent on all sorts of triggers. I would go out to vape after a movie or a meal. I would actually go out, because I felt jittery and in need of going out. So I just did it. Now all that is gone. Gone is also the need to vape at regular intervals. I actually vape very little or not at all during the day. Sometimes I vape in the morning, but not always, and I certainly do not feel that crushing urge right after I open my eyes, like with cigarettes.

I vape a lot in the car, and I mainly vape at night while writing, watching TV or doing whatever. Visiting ECF is the only strong trigger to vape like crazy I find that when I vape, I like to keep vaping on and on. That's why now I'm going to try out the carto-tank setup, and at some point I'll get a Reo (I guess I'll wait for the VV Woodvil to kill two birds with one stone?) I also find that I never really get a craving to vape. I don't know if that means I am no longer as addicted to nicotine as I was. I'd like to think so, but I am not eager to try quitting vaping right now.

Interestingly, I find that I am overall calmer and more patient. I used to plan my workday around smoking escapes. And I would get antsy when stuff would come in the way of my plans. Yet, I used to think cigarettes were allowing me to be calm and patient, and, based on cold turkey precedents, I used to think quitting them would make me insufferable. However, at work or play, even when I'm really not vaping at all, I now am indeed calmer on the average.